The Firelord makes his big comeback in Patch 4.2.
While most World of Warcraft: Cataclysm players are eagerly adventuring through Patch 4.1 which just hit Blizzard Entertainment's servers, Blizzard is hard at work making sure that there is always plenty more content in the pipe. We caught up with the developer to talk about what comes next -- patch 4.2.
With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard set up many new enemies for players to eventually face, and brought back a couple older ones. In particular, most people's first-ever big-bad-raid-boss Ragnaros is returning. Many players may let out a collective disappointed sigh and complain that Blizzard is recycling content again, but Blizzard's Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street assures us that that is not the case. Ragnaros, for players who never faced the flaming behemoth, is the leader of the elemental plane of fire. Players who defeated him in Molten Core may recall that they only faced an Avatar of the true foe. It's pretty likely that players will be facing the real deal when they set foot in the upcoming Firelands raid.
Firelands won't solely be the home of Ragnaros. He is the final boss of a family of seven. The raid is designed in such a way that players can tackle the first four bosses in any order they wish, but need to slay them all to be able to move onto the final three. Those last three will need to be tackled sequentially.
With World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, Blizzard set up many new enemies for players to eventually face, and brought back a couple older ones. In particular, most people's first-ever big-bad-raid-boss Ragnaros is returning. Many players may let out a collective disappointed sigh and complain that Blizzard is recycling content again, but Blizzard's Lead Systems Designer Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street assures us that that is not the case. Ragnaros, for players who never faced the flaming behemoth, is the leader of the elemental plane of fire. Players who defeated him in Molten Core may recall that they only faced an Avatar of the true foe. It's pretty likely that players will be facing the real deal when they set foot in the upcoming Firelands raid.
Firelands won't solely be the home of Ragnaros. He is the final boss of a family of seven. The raid is designed in such a way that players can tackle the first four bosses in any order they wish, but need to slay them all to be able to move onto the final three. Those last three will need to be tackled sequentially.
The rewards for extinguishing the leaders of the Firelands are well worth it, though. The raid is home to a brand new Legendary Staff designed for damage-dealing casters. It's the first DPS Caster Legendary since Atiesh during the original World of Warcraft, and that item was only relevant for a couple months before The Burning Crusade wiped the slate clean. Obtaining the Legendary will involve a long quest chain where the staff takes on a series of forms, similar to the Shadowmourne legendary quest chain. It will also require groups to kill unique bosses in the Firelands (though these bosses are purely for the benefit of the weapon-holder and won't give the rest of the group loot).
If you are in one of the guilds on the bleeding-edge of World of Warcraft's raiding scene, then Blizzard has something coming in 4.2 that might save you some repair bills. First revealed at last year's Blizzcon, 4.2 is introducing the Encounter Journal, a tool that shows a boss's move set, loot pool and lore and story background. While this is initially being implemented only for Cataclysm content, Blizzard plans to introduce the feature for all other dungeons. The idea is to remove the need for groups to run into a fight completely blind or rely on third-party information and mods.
Blizzard is also using 4.2 to introduce a new questing area for players who want an alternative to raiding. The new location, accessed through Hyjal, tasks players with helping the Cenarion Circle establish a base camp within the heart of the Plane of Fire and fighting off the forces that try to undo their hard work. Players will see the camp -- the usual Druidic tree -- grow from a sapling to a full-sized base through the course of their questing. There will be about 60 different quests for players to do, but they are counted as daily quests so they will be repeatable and limited to a certain number per day. Rewards from these quests include some neat vanity items. Of particular note is the "Flaming Hippogryph", a new flying mount. Guess what it is! I'll give you a clue: It's a flaming hippogryph.
Blizzard is also using 4.2 to introduce a new questing area for players who want an alternative to raiding. The new location, accessed through Hyjal, tasks players with helping the Cenarion Circle establish a base camp within the heart of the Plane of Fire and fighting off the forces that try to undo their hard work. Players will see the camp -- the usual Druidic tree -- grow from a sapling to a full-sized base through the course of their questing. There will be about 60 different quests for players to do, but they are counted as daily quests so they will be repeatable and limited to a certain number per day. Rewards from these quests include some neat vanity items. Of particular note is the "Flaming Hippogryph", a new flying mount. Guess what it is! I'll give you a clue: It's a flaming hippogryph.
Finally, 4.2 is going to add a quest chain centered on Thrall, the ex-Warchief of the Horde. While Horde veterans may know Thrall well, Alliance players might not be so lucky. As Ghostcrawler informed us, Thrall is going to play a central role in the final encounter with Deathwing, so ensuring that more than half the player base potentially knows who he is has become a priority. Ghostcrawler also told us that the dev team now knows exactly how Deathwing goes down, but naturally they're not going to let slip such an important storyline this early.
Patch 4.2 will be on the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm (PTR) "soon," with no official release window for the live servers.
Patch 4.2 will be on the World of Warcraft Public Test Realm (PTR) "soon," with no official release window for the live servers.
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